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Going off script in Sunday shows’ green rooms

The scene in the greenroom can be much different than the one on set. | Jay Westcott/POLITICO

Donna Brazile, a veteran Democratic strategist and regular panelist on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” said this is all part of “greenroom politics.”

“I often tell people that I’ve formed a lot of friendships in the greenroom,” Brazile said. “How many times can you see Ann Coulter and have a conversation with her about nonpolitical things where you might agree on a few items?”

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Brazile recalled talking football with Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim DeMint in greenrooms, noting, “You can always find something to connect on with people.”

Any hostility is usually saved for the show.

“I’ve rarely seen people come into the greenrooms argumentative,” she said. “We’re not at each other’s throats. We’re all trying to get our makeup applied and get a cup of coffee or glass of water before we go on air. Generally we keep our fodder until they say ‘5, 4, 3, 2 …’ and then we become whoever we are to the public.”

But Schieffer, who arrived at CBS in 1969, said that partisan politics do sometimes rupture the unspoken truce in the greenroom

“Through the years, the greenroom has been where people often come together, but in recent years, Washington has become so partisan and we’ve actually had people ask us if they could sit in a different room if they didn’t want to sit in the same room with somebody from the other party,” he said.

“It’s kind of a sad commentary on the state in Washington today, and that’s a fairly recent thing,” he added.

Back in the day, a sort of “Mad Men” culture pervaded the programs, with anchors such as Edward R. Murrow smoking on air, followed by post-show cocktails, according to Schieffer.

“You’d have the secretary of labor one Sunday and you might have the secretary of defense the next Sunday; it was pretty much just one guest [per show],” he recalled. “And we asked hard questions and everything, but immediately afterward we had this little bar on wheels that they’d wheel into the studio and everybody would have a Bloody Mary.”

Cocktails might not be served anymore, but guests can count on a full breakfast spread and bottomless coffee.

Nevertheless, Brazile said the breakfasts pale in comparison to what she’d offer.

“I know all of the calorie counts of all of the various greenrooms, and I can tell you that there’s a lot of balance in most of these greenrooms. They all use caterers; nobody is bringing food directly from their kitchen,” she said. “Clearly, if I was in charge, it would come from my kitchen.”

And what would that entail?

“There’s no reason to have eggs with cheese on it unless you have some grits on the side. And there’s no reason to have some bacon and sausage unless you have buttermilk biscuits,” she said. “I would give them a … Southern breakfast, worthy of my grandmother’s cooking.”